


Christmas Together

by Mythical-Ross (ScorchedAngel)



Category: Rhett & Link
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Domestic, Fluff, Link's eyes are pretty and blue and Rhett noticed, M/M, past pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-26 18:48:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21823297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScorchedAngel/pseuds/Mythical-Ross
Summary: Rhett and Link are spending their first Christmas together in their own home. As they try to combine their Christmas decorations, they quickly realize how meaningful it all is and much they have always meant to each other.
Relationships: Rhett McLaughlin/Link Neal
Comments: 4
Kudos: 24
Collections: Mythical Secret Santa 2019





	Christmas Together

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rachie_Boo123](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rachie_Boo123/gifts).



Even though they’d spent almost their whole lives together, Rhett and Link had never really spent Christmas together. They’d been a couple for the past few Christmasses, but they’d been living separately and stayed at their parents’ houses on Christmas Eve. This was the first year they were staying in LA for the whole Christmas season, living together in their own house. 

“You can’t force Christmas spirit,” Rhett had said when Link started fretting that it ‘wouldn’t feel right’ to stay in LA, “in a few years this’ll all feel normal.”

Link had snorted at the sentiment, but he appreciated Rhett’s attempt to cheer him up. “Christmas Spirit,” he laughed. “What is this, a Hallmark movie?” 

On December 1st, Link insisted it was time to decorate the house. They had several boxes each labelled ‘Xmas’ that had been unceremoniously dumped in what would eventually become the guest bedroom. Link was eager to start consolidating all their decorations but the more he talked about it, the more Rhett seemed to be trying to avoid it.

“Can’t we just watch a Christmas movie and curl up under a blanket?” Rhett suggested hopefully.

“I’m doing it today and you better help or I’ll just throw all your stuff away,” Link told Rhett. He had no intention of doing it without Rhett, but Link wasn’t above an empty threat to encourage him. 

It was just starting to get dark when Link carried one of the boxes into the living room. Rhett gave a long moan when he saw Link coming. “Now?” He whined.

“Yes,” Link said cheerfully. “Come on, it’ll be fun!” 

Despite his protests, Rhett helped Link carry the boxes downstairs. They sat facing each other on the rug as Link looked around the room thoughtfully. “How big is your tree?” Link asked. “We’ll only have room for one big one… maybe some little ones.”

“What?” Rhett practically whispered.

“Your tree,” Link prompted. 

“I always get a real tree.”

They stared at each other, mouths ajar, like they had just discovered a horrible secret about each other. Link was the first to speak.

“I’m not having a real tree in my house!” 

“But you’d have a fake tree? Those things are horrible!”

“They’re a lot more appealing when you don’t have to worry about it catching fire and burning down the whole house!” 

Rhett scoffed at the suggestion. “That won’t happen.”

“You don’t know that!” 

“Yes I do,” Rhett said, trying to sound reassuring. “Plus a real tree looks and smells better. It smells like Christmas to me. Why do you think I like wood so much?”

Link hesitated. He knew Rhett was trying to emotionally blackmail him and it was working… almost. “Rhett, come on,” he said calmly. “We already have a nice tree. We don’t need to go out and buy another one.” He placed a hand on Rhett’s knee and squeezed gently. “Just for this year and we can talk about it again next year.” 

Rhett sighed. He, of all people wasn’t immune to Link’s charm. “Ugh, fine. But just this year. I love my real tree dang-it.”

Link smiled, both relieved and satisfied to get his way. He opened a couple of his boxes until he found the tree in pieces. “The one downside,” he said, grinning as he pulled out a bundle of branches and set them on the couch, “is that you have to attach each branch individually.” 

“Are you kidding me,” Rhett muttered under his breath, but got up to help.

With the ‘trunk’ connected to the base, Rhett kneeled on the floor and slotted in the branches as Link passed them to him one at a time. He put out his hand to receive the next branch, looking up at Link when it didn’t come.

Link gazed down at him blissfully. “I can’t believe I’m doing this with you.”

Rhett huffed out a laugh, “why d’you say that?”

Link shrugged. “We always spent Christmas with our parents and I figured some day we’d start spending it with our own, separate, families.”

Rhett gave a small smile, unsure what to say to such a touching comment. “I’m glad,” he said, the words catching in his throat.

Link cleared his throat, physically shaking himself, and handed Rhett the next branch. They were soon standing side by side inspecting the bare tree. 

“It looks so sad,” Rhett said.

“Once it’s decorated it’ll look great.”

“Why don’t we put some lights on it?” Rhett suggested. “I’ve got a bunch of them.” 

Link watched him go back to the boxes and select a string of little white LED lights. “I have colored ones,” he said.

Rhett stopped what he was doing and looked at Link. “Aren’t those a little old-fashioned?”

“I like them,” Link shrugged. “They remind me of the tree in my mom’s house.”

“Oh yeah…” Rhett said, tilting his head slightly. When they were kids he was always so jealous of Link’s Christmas tree. The tree in his house was all red and gold (‘tasteful’ his mom called it) but he always thought Link’s tree looked more like Christmas. “Okay,” he said after a pause, “colored it is.”

Rhett held one end of the string of lights at the top as Link circled the tree with the rest, adjusting as he went. He couldn’t resist running his fingers across Rhett’s stomach each time he passed, earning a giggle from Rhett. 

With the lights on the tree, Rhett went looking for ornaments. He opened the next of Link’s boxes and peered inside. Sitting right on top was a little tree, about two feet tall, made entirely of green tinsel. He’d bought it years ago when Link said he wanted something to brighten up his desk. Rhett had found the tackiest, cheapest decoration he could and proudly set it down beside a bemused Link. “Why do you still have this?” he said, unable to hold in a laugh.

When Link realized what Rhett was talking about, he snatched the tree out of the box and held it away from Rhett. “Because I love it,” he said, placing it defiantly on the table at the end of the couch. “Remember when you bought this for me?”

“Yeah…”

“I was having such a bad day,” he said, “and you just appeared beside me with this ridiculous tree and a huge smile on your face, so pleased with yourself. It turned my whole week around.” Link smiled to himself at the memory and looked up to find Rhett smiling back at him. 

“In that case, I love it too,” Rhett said. He went back to the box of Link’s decorations. There were no tree ornaments, but the box was full of little snow-covered buildings. “What are these?”

Link looked into the box and lifted out two of the houses. “My Christmas village!” he grinned. He moved an unopened box off the coffee table and set down the houses. “I got this one first because it looked like my house and then I bought that one because it looked like your house.”

Rhett watched as Link arranged the buildings on the coffee table. He had a space for each one and looked up at Rhett triumphantly as he placed the last one. “It’s Buies Creek,” Rhett realized. 

“Yeah!” Link said, and stood up beside Rhett to survey the town. He wrapped an arm around Rhett’s waist and leaned his head against Rhett’s chest. “I know it takes up a lot of space. I’m sure we can find somewhere else for it.”

“I like it there,” Rhett said. “We can work around it.” Since they weren’t going back to North Carolina, it was a nice way of keeping their family and old friends close. 

Link retrieved a candle out of one of Rhett’s boxes and set it down beside the village. “Can I light this candle?” He said, hoping to improve the ambiance.

“Not that one,” Rhett said quickly before Link could find the candle lighter. 

“What? Why not?” Link asked. It was just a plain white church candle with a Christmas tree stuck on the side. It looked like he got it at a gas station.

“It’s just a reminder,” Rhett said, looking a little uncomfortable. “Before we were a couple I was really good at hiding my feelings… most of the time.”

Link sat down on the couch and gave Rhett an encouraging nod. Truth be told he was still good at hiding his feelings. When he opened up, Link liked to encourage him as best he could.

“Once I was in Walmart, minding my own business, and you text me all excited about some guy who’d just asked you out and it killed me man.” Rhett cleared his throat and sat down beside Link on the couch. “I just started crying right there in the aisle.”

Link placed a hand on Rhett’s knee and squeezed gently. “Yeah, I was a dumbass.”

“We both were,” Rhett said. “This nice lady came and asked what was wrong and I just blurted it all out. She told me if it’s meant to be, it’s never too late and she would light a candle for us.” He lifted the candle and smiled. “I picked this up in the next aisle over to remind myself that God would be working on it.”

“That’s really sweet,” Link said. He placed a hand on Rhett’s cheek and gave him a gentle kiss. “I guess it must have worked.”

“Guess so,” Rhett grinned.

Link scanned the rest of the boxes and pointed at a small one by the couch. “That one says ‘Rhett’s Xmas tree ornaments’. You think that has Christmas tree ornaments in it?” 

Rhett narrowed his eyes. He didn’t remember labelling his boxes so extensively. “Alright alright,” he said, amusement in his voice. “You just concentrate on finding your own so we can figure out what to keep and what to throw away.” 

Link found his box of ornaments and sat down beside Rhett on the couch. “My own decorations take up the whole tree so we definitely need to get rid of some stuff,” he said, searching through the decorations. 

“I don’t want to get rid of any of mine,” Rhett muttered.

“Well, neither do I,” Link said and looked into Rhett’s box. “There’s bound to be something you don’t need in there,” he said. He pulled out a plain blue star and turned it around in his hand. “Like this. It’s nice, but it’s not very distinctive.”

Rhett took the star from Link’s hand and held it up beside his face. “It’s the same color as your eyes,” he said sheepishly. “I couldn’t resist it… it was just something subtle that reminded me of you.”

Link took the star back and looked down at it in a new light. Before they got together, Link would keep little items all the time that reminded him of Rhett but he didn’t realize Rhett would be sentimental enough to do the same. Without speaking, he went and placed it on the tree and sat back down on the couch.

“Thanks,” Rhett grinned. He peered into Link’s box and picked out a little plastic Santa carrying a christmas tree. “Do you want to keep this? It’s a little cheap looking.”

Link’s face flushed. He gave Rhett a guilty look.

“Seriously?” Rhett said, understanding right away. He held the ornament up to eye level so he could get a closer look. 

“What?” Link said. “A bearded man with wood made me think of you.”

Rhett couldn’t help laughing. “Okay, fair enough,” he said. “That one can stay.”

Link leaned over and gave him a kiss. “Don’t worry, you’re still my favourite bearded man with wood.” 

Rhett rolled his eyes, but laughed anyway. “Okay, well what about this?” he said, lifting a gold bell out of the box. “It isn’t even a Christmas decoration.” Rhett had taken a trip to Philadelphia years ago with his brother’s family, and brought a Liberty Bell back for Link as a souvenir.

Link smiled fondly at the memory. “I was so pissed at you for going on that trip,” he said. “We were crazy busy with work and you just left me for a week to deal with it on my own.”

“That doesn’t sound like a great memory,” Rhett pointed out.

“But you came back,” Link went on. “We spent so many Christmases apart, I moved the bell to my tree to remind myself you’d be back. You always come back.” 

Rhett couldn’t think of a response. It was just like Link to turn a bad memory into something positive. 

Before Rhett had a chance to speak, Link leaned over and took a plain silver ball out of Rhett’s box. “What about this? It couldn’t possibly have any sentimental value.”

“Um…” 

“You’re kidding.”

“I’ve had that one longer than any other decoration,” Rhett said, grinning at the confusion on Link’s face. “One Christmas I was at your house, and I was telling your mom how much I loved your tree and how it didn’t feel like Christmas until I saw it.”

“That’s really cute,” Link said.

Rhett shrugged. “Well your mom must have thought so too, because she took that ball off the tree and gave it to me to keep.”

“I never knew that,” Link said. “I always wondered why you had that one silver ornament on your mom’s beautiful red and gold tree.”

Before long, there wasn’t a bare branch on the whole tree. Every ornament seemed to have some sentimental value and neither was willing to let any of them go. 

“What kind of topper do you have?” Rhett asked, setting the remainder of the ornaments on the floor. 

“A star,” Link said. “What kind of topper to  _ you  _ have?”

“A Link!” Rhett said, holding up the weirdest looking angel Link had ever seen.

“What the hell is that,” Link asked slowly. 

Rhett smiled at the angel in front of him. “I got it because I liked the look of it,” he said, “then one day I saw it out of the corner of my eye and realized it looks exactly like you.”

“It does not!” Link protested, narrowing his eyes at the doll’s heavy brow and square jaw.

“Let’s see your star,” Rhett said, trying to change the subject. 

Link pulled the star out of his box and held it up to show Rhett. It was made of wood and painted with red, yellow and blue paint. 

“Uh…” Rhett said, not wanting to criticise it in case it was particularly meaningful to Link.

“Don’t give me that look,” Link snapped. “Remember the time I took my mom to Europe for Christmas? I picked it up in a Christmas Market in Berlin and the woman selling it told me to make a wish and put it on my Christmas tree.”

“Good sales technique,” Rhett grinned.

“Well it worked,” Link shrugged.

“What did you wish for?” Rhett said, a smile teasing at the corner of his lips.

Link couldn’t help smiling. “It doesn’t matter, it already came true,” he said, and leaned forward to press a kiss to Rhett’s lips.

“Oh,” Rhett grinned, “well in that case, can’t Angel Link go on the tree?”

Link picked up the little gold angel and looked at her face. Apart from the long hair, it actually did look a lot like him.  _ Distinctive _ for a woman, to put it nicely. “I guess,” he said, turning his nose up.

“I think it’s beautiful,” Rhett said, looking at Link instead of the angel.

“Shut up,” Link said while trying not to smile. “Okay fine, put the angel on the tree. But I’m not getting rid of the star.”

“Put it on that little tree,” Rhett said, pointing at the 2 foot tall tinsel tree.

Link shrugged. They didn’t match and the star was half the size of the tree, but he crossed the room and placed it on top anyway. 

“Perfect,” Rhett said.

Perfect wasn’t the word Link would have used but it looked whimsical if nothing else. “Better than putting the angel on here,” he admitted. “That would just look like me with a tree up my ass”

Once again, they stood back and inspected the tree. It looked considerably better with the decorations.

“Do you feel more Christmassy now?” Rhett asked, prodding Link in the side gently.

“Yeah,” Link said, grinning up at him. “Don’t you?”

“A little.”

“We still have a box of ornaments we don’t want to throw away,” Link said, pointing at the box on the floor. “What are we going to do with them?”

“Save them for next year?” Rhett suggested.

“But I want them out now!”

“Well then we’ll have to take something else off.”

Link looked up at Rhett pleadingly, like Rhett was going to be able to magically fix it. “Well,” Rhett said, after thinking it over for a moment. “There is one easy solution.”

“What?” 

“We could get a bigger tree.”

“Oh!” Link said, initially pleased with the suggestion. He narrowed his eyes at Rhett when he realized what he was really suggesting. “Wait a second. You’re just saying that so we’ll go and look at real trees.”

“Aw come on Link,” Rhett said. He placed his hands on Link’s shoulders and turned him towards the tree. “We tried yours and it’s not big enough.”

“I’ve never had any complaints before,” Link grinned, unable to help himself. 

“Please?” Rhett said, trying not to giggle at Link’s joke.

“Fiiiine,” Link said. “We can go tomorrow.”

“Thank you,” Rhett said, leaning down and giving Link a kiss on the cheek.

“I must really love you,” Link mused. “I guess if you’re happy, I can cope with the fear of the house burning down.”


End file.
